How to Write a Good Story

When Should We CaPiTaLizE?

Capitalize personal titles when used specifically as titles, but not when just referring to the rank in general. This includes the more common mister and miss, familial titles like  and father, courtesy titles like earl and   and military ranks like wing commander and sergeant. When used as a  title, the first letter must be capitalized whether the title is in its  abbreviated form or not, for example, Mister Jones and Mr Jones  (in each of these cases, the person's specific name is attached to the  title). In the example given in the picture, the two titles are capitalized because they are used as personal titles, rather than just a captain, it is the captain. Although "Captain" does not precede a name, it is still capitalized because it is used in place of a name.

Some examples:   "I disagree Senator Bandy Andy." (direct address to person)"Senator Bandy Andy disliked attending committee meetings in the month of May." (before a person's name)The senator gave a speech at the dinner party held in honor of his years in office. (common noun)Royalty is also included. Any royal, imperial or position of office  titles are also included in the title rule, although it is a little more  complicated. You can say both the king and the King and  either will be right depending on in which context it was used. When you  are referring to a specific king, and this is clear, you can capitalize, for example, the King of Denmark. If you are in England,  their queen is always referred to as "the Queen", and it is obvious  which queen this is referring to. This title stands for her name - not  many people would just refer to her as "Elizabeth"!

Royal styles are  also capitalized, e.g. His Majesty.Family names can also be thought of as personal titles. They are capitalized only when used in place of a name or preceding a name, e.g. Uncle Joe. Normally, the familial term is just a regular noun, e.g. I have one sister.

However, when used as a substitute for a name,  that usage is a proper noun. Remember: all names are capitalised. When  used in front of a name, that is a personal title. This above rules  about personal titles do also apply when "family" names are used in a  or religious context, as in that case they are used as titles, for example, Father Joseph, or Sister Kate.     

4. Check capitalization for abbreviations. Initials and   are often written in all capital letters, although this differs  depending on the word in general. (An initialism is a term often used  for acronyms that are made up of and pronounced as a series of initial  letters, for example, the Federal Bureau of Investigation or the British Broadcasting Corporation). These can be written in all capitals, for example, FAQ or USA, or also as a normal word, for example, Interpol (International Criminal Police Organization) or laser (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation).

If you're not sure, look up the word in question in a search engine and see how others capitalise it.  The capitalisation of "internet" or "Internet" is an interesting  case still under evolution. Either way is currently accurate, dependent  on what you use as your reference source, although it does seem to be  evolving more towards being treated as a common noun, especially outside  of North America.      

5. Respect that publication titles have different capitalization rules dependent on in-house guides and rules.

Things like book titles, movie titles, song and album titles,  historical documents, laws, newspaper headlines, etc. are each treated a  little differently. It's "War and Peace" not "War and peace", right?  These titles aren't all always capitalised the same way, but follow  similar patterns, quite like wikiHow .  Often, the first word (whatever it be may) and maybe the last word of  the title is capitalised, along with any words that are not articles (like a or the), coordinate conjunctions or prepositions (like of, to, or in) that have less than five letters, for example, The Catcher in the Rye.  Titles using all capitalisation is a personal or organisational preference.  While the initial letter should be capitalised at the beginning of the  title, always aim for consistency of use with either all upper or all  lowercase (after the initial word) for the entire title. Always check  your organisation's or publisher's style guide to see what they prefer  for titles.     

6. Respect any words with inherent capitalizations.

Some  nouns have odd capitalization, most commonly brand names, websites,  etc. For example, this includes Apple Inc. products, often titled things  like iPad, iPod; software like MediaWiki and websites like deviantArt  and even wikiHow! These words are always spelt thus regardless of other  rules. wikiHow can go at the start of the sentence without capitalising  its first letter, because it is always spelt with a lowercase w.  Where possible, do your best to avoid placing an unusually  capitalised noun at the beginning of the sentence, and that way you can  avoid writing "IPod" or "WikiHow". For example, change "IPods are used by high school students for  learning purposes" to "High school students use iPods for learning  purposes".

P.S. Carikavanlog I hope this is useful to you? Cleared it up pretty well for me. Just takes extra thinking sometimes to figure out if something must be capitalized or not.